- Joined
- August 30, 2006
- Messages
- 7,830
This thread is meant to give you information on things …
… you may find useful for your purchase decision,
… which could help prevent incompatibilities,
… assist you in getting the game running correctly at first glance.
For tweaks and bug fixes please check the other thread nearby.
System requirements
According to a couple of reviews the following PC is okay for medium to high details on a resolution in the 12xx range:
- At least 2 cores, more has minimal positive effect.
- Something like an X2 3800 is okay. Faster = better!
- 2 GB RAM is fine. More is unnecessary.
- Graphics card with shader modell 3. See below! Generally speaking a 100$ card like a GeForce 8800 / 9600 or a comparable ATI will do.
Risen is CPU limited!
This means a fast CPU is more important than an expensive graphics card. Tests also have shown that Risen profits from 2 CPU cores, while the gain from the 3rd or 4th core is minimal, although positive. Faster clock speed on the other hand is always a plus.
Update: The first statement turned out to be incorrect. Risen has comparably low system requirements. It can be tweaked heavily even on inexpensive PCs.
GeForce 6 & GeForce 7 cards
- The GeForce 6 is too slow.
- As of today there is a technical problem on GeForce 7 cards. The whole screen is filled with fog, making the game unplayable. It's unclear whether it's only a bug or a permanent incompatibility. According to DS, Risen has been tested on the GF 7900 before the system requirements were published. Then the problem didn't surface.
- The obvious conclusion is that it doesn't make much sense to buy the game now for GF 6 or GF 7 users.
Update Oct. 5th: According to PB the cause of the problem has probably been found over the weekend. They also have an idea how to solve the issue. When testing has confirmed it works correctly, a hotfix will be released. Intense tests are necessary for this. They're talking days, not weeks.
Update Oct. 6th: Internal tests at PB were successful on all available GF 6 & 7 cards. The hotfix has been passed on to external testing.
Update Oct. 8th: A hotfix (1.01 international) has been released. The problem is solved.
Reports hint that Risen scales better than expected. It's possible Risen might be playable with reasonable details on faster GF 7 cards and low details on 6600+/7600+. Use this info at your own risk.
Anti-Aliasing
Risen does not support AA. It can be enforced by tools and / or driver.
AA confirmed for nVidia cards, with nHancer. Use 2x2 Supersampling instead of Multisampling if your card is fast enough.
Enforcing AA on ATI cards seems to work, but there are many reports about uneven performance.
SLI / CrossFire
Works with the usual tricks. The effect is huge.
nVidia driver
The recommended driver is 181.20. New drivers may lead to performance leaks.
Update: In the meantime nVidia has included optimizations for Risen in later driver releases.
nVidia driver options
In case of performance problems make sure the following nVidia driver options are disabled:
- AA
- Pre-render frames [-> set to zero]
- Physx support by GPU
Demo
A demo for PC has been released. You can find it on the usual sites.
XBox 360: Patch
Sources say Deep Silver promised to publish a patch within 4 weeks after release.
It will try to squeeze better graphics out of the XBox 360.
Important update:
The NA XBox360 release already includes the improvements and seems to be solid. Deep Silver hasn't announced a release date for a Euro XBox360 patch though. It's not even sure it will come out at all!
Toshiba HD-DVD drives
Several of these drives apparently have a firmware issue. They don't support certain parts of the DVD standard needed by the Tages copy protection. Since the HD-DVD standard is dead, it's more than unlikely the problem will be fixed.
If you own such a drive, buy a download version.
Copy Protection
Retail: Tagès; disk check, no DRM, no activation.
Steam: Steam; Tagès, no disk check, with activation.
other DL services: unconfirmed.
… you may find useful for your purchase decision,
… which could help prevent incompatibilities,
… assist you in getting the game running correctly at first glance.
For tweaks and bug fixes please check the other thread nearby.
System requirements
According to a couple of reviews the following PC is okay for medium to high details on a resolution in the 12xx range:
- At least 2 cores, more has minimal positive effect.
- Something like an X2 3800 is okay. Faster = better!
- 2 GB RAM is fine. More is unnecessary.
- Graphics card with shader modell 3. See below! Generally speaking a 100$ card like a GeForce 8800 / 9600 or a comparable ATI will do.
Risen is CPU limited!
This means a fast CPU is more important than an expensive graphics card. Tests also have shown that Risen profits from 2 CPU cores, while the gain from the 3rd or 4th core is minimal, although positive. Faster clock speed on the other hand is always a plus.
Update: The first statement turned out to be incorrect. Risen has comparably low system requirements. It can be tweaked heavily even on inexpensive PCs.
GeForce 6 & GeForce 7 cards
- As of today there is a technical problem on GeForce 7 cards. The whole screen is filled with fog, making the game unplayable. It's unclear whether it's only a bug or a permanent incompatibility. According to DS, Risen has been tested on the GF 7900 before the system requirements were published. Then the problem didn't surface.
- The obvious conclusion is that it doesn't make much sense to buy the game now for GF 6 or GF 7 users.
Update Oct. 5th: According to PB the cause of the problem has probably been found over the weekend. They also have an idea how to solve the issue. When testing has confirmed it works correctly, a hotfix will be released. Intense tests are necessary for this. They're talking days, not weeks.
Update Oct. 6th: Internal tests at PB were successful on all available GF 6 & 7 cards. The hotfix has been passed on to external testing.
Update Oct. 8th: A hotfix (1.01 international) has been released. The problem is solved.
Reports hint that Risen scales better than expected. It's possible Risen might be playable with reasonable details on faster GF 7 cards and low details on 6600+/7600+. Use this info at your own risk.
Anti-Aliasing
Risen does not support AA. It can be enforced by tools and / or driver.
AA confirmed for nVidia cards, with nHancer. Use 2x2 Supersampling instead of Multisampling if your card is fast enough.
Enforcing AA on ATI cards seems to work, but there are many reports about uneven performance.
SLI / CrossFire
Works with the usual tricks. The effect is huge.
nVidia driver
The recommended driver is 181.20. New drivers may lead to performance leaks.
Update: In the meantime nVidia has included optimizations for Risen in later driver releases.
nVidia driver options
In case of performance problems make sure the following nVidia driver options are disabled:
- AA
- Pre-render frames [-> set to zero]
- Physx support by GPU
Demo
A demo for PC has been released. You can find it on the usual sites.
XBox 360: Patch
Sources say Deep Silver promised to publish a patch within 4 weeks after release.
It will try to squeeze better graphics out of the XBox 360.
Important update:
The NA XBox360 release already includes the improvements and seems to be solid. Deep Silver hasn't announced a release date for a Euro XBox360 patch though. It's not even sure it will come out at all!
Toshiba HD-DVD drives
Several of these drives apparently have a firmware issue. They don't support certain parts of the DVD standard needed by the Tages copy protection. Since the HD-DVD standard is dead, it's more than unlikely the problem will be fixed.
If you own such a drive, buy a download version.
Copy Protection
Retail: Tagès; disk check, no DRM, no activation.
Steam: Steam; Tagès, no disk check, with activation.
other DL services: unconfirmed.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2006
- Messages
- 7,830